This invention relates generally to an airbag support assembly for a vehicle airbag which provides a seamless instrument panel.
Incorporation of airbags into vehicles has created many design challenges for automotive designers. It is desirable to incorporate an airbag into an instrument panel in front of the vehicle passenger seat. When incorporating an airbag into an instrument panel it is necessary to provide an airbag cover that will reliably and safely tear, such that the passenger is protected. To this end, a tear seam has generally been provided in an instrument panel cover to insure that the airbag will safely deploy.
Vehicle designers prefer to have a continuous surface on the front face of the instrument panel whenever possible, so they would prefer to avoid having a tear seam in the instrument panel. Thus, recently there has been an effort to achieve a "seamless" design wherein there is no indication on the front face of the instrument panel that the airbag is behind the instrument panel. To achieve this design, tear seams or tear strips provided in the instrument panel are only provided on the under face, and not on the front face of the instrument panel.
A major design challenge with such "seamless" designs has been to provide an appropriate airbag support assembly for supporting the airbag before, during and after deployment through the instrument panel. Typically the airbag support assembly has been tailored to specific instrument panel configurations because the airbag support assembly is an integral part of the instrument panel itself. The instrument panel often requires additional support members near the airbag support assembly and the airbag support assembly must fit between these additional support members. Another challenge is that when the configuration of an instrument panel is changed, frequently the airbag support assembly must also be redesigned to fit in the new instrument panel.
Thus, it is desirable to create an airbag support assembly for an airbag that is independent of the instrument panel and that is standardized so that it can be incorporated in the "seamless" design of a variety of instrument panel configurations. Preferably, such an airbag support assembly would be simpler in design than current airbag support assemblies and permit a reduction in the number of additional support members currently used to support instrument panels adjacent to the airbag. Such a design would be readily adaptable to changes in the styling and configuration of the instrument panel.